I'm not in Love
by everycloudhas
Summary: Inoue Orihime, healer. No longer in love with Kurosaki Ichigo. Will heal but will not love.
1. Chapter 1

Inoue Orihime was going to do it.

She was getting out of this silly crush over Kurosaki Ichigo.

Or was it love?

Whatever.

Five Lifetimes, One love.

Ha!

Just a young girl with her foolish head in the clouds. Building castle in the air.

No more.

She was getting out of this hopeless unrequited love.

Inoue Orihime will no longer fawn over Kurosaki Ichigo.

She will slowly and steadily remove herself from his life.

Staring Tomorrow.

She will do it.

And Kurosaki Ichigo will not even miss her, right?


	2. Chapter 2

Hello, fellow IchiHime fans. Sorry about my very short chapter one. I could not sleep and so I typed the story, short as it was and posted it.

"Ohayo, Tatsuki-chan." Orihime greeted her best friend cheerfully with an enormous smile on her face.

Inwardly she was trying to halt the butterflies from fighting among themselves for the last bright orange flower.

Today is the day.

The day which Inoue Orihime will be a strong independent woman and not a silly love sick little girl anymore.

After dodging a molestation from the pervert lesbian and ignoring her cries of pain from being bashed deservedly by her guardian dragon, Orihime made her way to her desk.

From the corner of her eye, she sneaked a peek at whether he was here.

He was not.

Sitting down, Orihime heaved a sign of relief.

She wondered if he would be by himself when he shows up.

"ICIHIGOOO!"

He was here.

Orihime gripped her hands tightly as she looked out the window.

Not greeting him will take some using to.

She heard him greeting his friends and then answering a query from Tatsuki.

She will not turn and greet him unless...,

he acknowledges her first.

It would be rude of her not to return the gesture.

And so she waited with a thundering heart.

And waited.

But there was none a coming.

She was right.

Kurosaki Ichigo did not consider her as a friend even worthy of a 'Good Morning'.

She is just a mobile hospital. A medical team at his beck and call.

Confronting reality, she decided to take a look as to what he was doing.

If she did not want to believe and she thought she might have the tininess of hope, the scene shattered whatever optimism she might still stubbornly clinged on to.

'Remember and be strong." Orihime vowed to herself.

She avidly ignored the word floating in her mind.

'Exclusion.'

She tried, she really tried but she could feel her cheeks becoming wet. She wiped away the signs of hurt to avoid anyone noticing how weak she was.

She was not born under a lucky star.

"Inoue-san, are you feeling all right?"

'Ishida-kun is so observant and kind.'

"I am fine, Ishida-kun." Orihime gave Uryuu a reassuring smile and hoped that he will be satisfied with her answer.

Uryuu knew Orihime was not 'fine' but he would not pressured the gentle healer if she did not want to share her burden.

"Orihime, what's wrong?" Tatsuki must have heard. She approached her friend and then she saw the tear stained eyes.

"Why were you crying." She asked even though she knew Orihime will not tell her the truth.

'Why should I feel sorry for myself, I have good friends.' 'Friends that really do care.'

She shook herself out of all this negativity.

"It's nothing, Tatsuki-chan." "Maybe it is that time of the month." Orihime whispered self-consciously.

Tatsuki grimaced and patted her friend on the head before walking away.

Orihime was relieved that her two friends did not make much of a fuss over her moment of self-pity bout.

Settling herself down, she bravely stole a glance at the one who has caused the waterworks.

Soft honey eyes met hard chocolate eyes.

She was too startled to rein in the emotions on her face.

She hoped he could not read what was showing in her eyes.

Feeling her face heating up, she turned away to avoid him seeing the blush on her cheeks.

'What was that look?'

'Don't think too much, it will only bring you pain.'

'Don't falter in your attempts to only accept the truth and nothing else.' Orihime reminded herself.

Tried as he might, Ichigo could not keep his eyes away from Orihime.

It was bad enough he did not get his extremely chirpy 'Good Morning' from her and now she was crying.

He was bothered she was worrying about something that caused her to shed tears down her beautiful face.

'Wait a minute, did I just said that Inoue is beautiful?' He continued to look at the girl who still has her head bent over something.

'There's nothing wrong in admitting to the truth.' 'Orihime is a very beautiful girl.' 'Hang on, did I just call Inoue, Orihime and repeated she was not only beautiful but very.' Ichigo was feeling rather confused.

He should be concentrating on what was troubling his classmate and finding ways to help her.

He should not be admiring her beauty.

Maybe a talk with her.

Alone.

Just the two of them.

Why is he getting all excited over it?

My first fanfiction on my favorite character and the dense guy she like, sorry, love.

Would love to hear what fellow IchiHime fans think?

Thanx for reading.


	3. Chapter 3

Hello, many thanks for reading, following and adding my first fanfic as your favorite. 

To those who reviewed, thanx.

koroo hana : Yes, ichigo is dense to ignore Orihime. But not for long. Not a fast update but hopefully an interesting one.

Tia-Chan18 : No IchiRuki for me. Euuugh! Enough said. 

nypsy : No kicking unless it is for self-defense. I don't really like violent girls.

**Easier said than done.**

Whoever coined this phrase knew what he or she was talking about.

Orihime was having a difficult time.

You just do not, not love someone when you have been having this kind of feeling for so long.

How do you go about avoiding someone who's in the same class as you?

Who is defending the town and whose existence triggered your own power?

Which in turn enable you to heal him when needed?

Just how do you stay out of his way?

It would be better for everybody if Kurosaki-kun has shown a little interest in some other girl.

At least, there will not be, although how much she tried to deny it, a tinge of lingering hope.

And now it seemed Kurosaki-kun is trying to corner her for something.

What, she did not know and she did not wish to find out.

And the most baffling of them all, 'that look', she has caught him staring at her on more than one occasion with that expression on his face.

No, she must not waver in her new found desire to not look for something that's just not there.

But 'that look' was just not helping.

Another day, another day of seeking what's real and not looking for love in all the wrong places.

Even before she walked into the classroom with Tatsuki, Orihime has already made up her mind.

She was going to greet Kurosaki-kun but just not in her normal effervescent way.

Inoue Orihime is a polite girl.

She greets all her friends.

And he is a friend, right?

A friend. Inoue is just a friend, right?

Kurosaki Ichigo was going to do it. He is going to be more considerate of his friends' feelings. Especially the one who seemed not to be treating him as such for the last few days. He was not as good at understanding what others are trying to convey but he knew when someone was trying to by all means possible to avoid him.

He plans to find out but first he needed to show her she is a friend. Isn't she just, a friend?

"Ohayo, Kurosaki-kun."

"Yo, Inoue."

They both started greeting each other at the same time.

Reflecting the blushes on both their cheeks, they stared at each other and quickly looked away.

"Wow, Ichigo. Synchronized greeting." "You two are really in tune with each other." "Are you two having some kind of clandestine relationship?" Keigo was not a blabbermouth.

'Synchronized? Clandestine?' 'Does Keigo knows what he is gabbling about?' 'And he's embarrassing Inoue.'

Ichigo silenced Keigo with his fist.

Alas, the damage was done.

He could see her classmates descending on her, seemingly to ask her about her 'relationship' with him.

Damn nosy gossipers.

He wished he could get her away from them but in doing so he might cause them to be more of a target of the rumor mills.

He has forgotten about Tatsuki.

With one swoop, the dragon has saved the princess.

He saw Tatsuki saying something to Inoue, both of them turned to look at him, Tatsuki with a playful smug on her face and Inoue blushing in a wholly flustering way.

He just hoped he wasn't blushing as well for thinking how cute she looked.

Luckily the sensei chose that very moment to come into the class.

Taking one last glance at the gentle healer, he tried to concentrate on the lesson.

It was an uphill task for in his mind was long shiny hair, soft honey sparkling eyes and the expressive face that has started to invade his dreams.

Orihime tried to focus on what the sensei was lecturing about but she could sense Kurosaki-kun stealing glances at her.

She knew because she used to do that when she was head over heels in love with her protector.

She could not understand. What is Kurosaki-kun up to? She does not mean it in the bad way as Kurosaki-kun is a good person. A little dense but a really thoughtful and kind hearted person. She giggled softly as she admired herself for insulting her crush.

'_No, I do not have a thing for Kurosaki-kun anymore._' She shook her head as she reaffirmed her 'faltering?' conviction.

Maybe it is time to stop avoiding Kurosaki-kun. Have a talk with him to get it all out in the open.

What could be so wrong with it?

What could go wrong?

Ichigo would give up his friendship with Keigo to know what Inoue was thinking?

He was not staring at her for no apparent reason.

He just happened to accidentally glanced at her the very moment she was daydreaming about something.

The happy giggles, the cute pout and then the vigorous shaking of the head.

Just what is going on in that overactive imaginative mind of hers?

At least she is not sad anymore.

Having tears on her beautiful face is a travesty.

'_There I go again. thinking Inoue is beautiful.' ____'But she has classmates and ______schoolmates following her.'_ 'You can't fight what is plainly the truth.' Ichigo tried to justified his deduction.

_'Maybe I should compare her to the other girls.' _He started with his comparison.

_'Tatsuki.' 'Almost like a buddy to me, can't even get pass the boyishness.'_

_'The one who is always trying to grope Inoue, what's her name?' 'HELL NO!'_

_'Inoue's other friends, don't even know their names, much less remember their faces.'_

He was running out of their classmates so he went to his 'other' acquaintances.

_'Rukia.' 'If you like the violent, struck up midget type who is old enough to be your much older sister, mother, eh, grandmother, then yeah.'_

_'Rangiku-san and Yoruichi-san.' 'More of the 'can see but cannot touch' type.' 'Almost like porn stars.'  
_

_'Aargh! Why am I comparing Inoue to them?' _Ichigo was screaming in frustration in his head._  
_

_'Inoue is in a class of her own.'_

_"There, I admit it. Inoue is unique.' _ Ichigo was glad to be honest with himself.

Now all that needs to be done is try to get whatever is bothering him off his chest.

And that being a certain Inoue Orihime.

He just really need to talk to her.

What could be so wrong with it?

What could go wrong?

Hey all, thanx for reading. 

I know I have stated that this story's genres are 'Romance and Hurt/Comfort but as I write, I have been having second thoughts.

What do you guys think if I were to change it to 'Romance and Comedy?

And maybe, comes Valentine's day, while stuffing my face with B&J ice cream, I could do angst.

What do you guys think?

Thanx.


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